12 Miles Below

Kidra was in trouble.

Don’t ask me how I know, because that’ll require some effort to come up with an idea on the spot. Call it a hunch. Intuition. Clairvoyance. Extreme separation anxiety about the only person who’s ever been a constant pillar of support in my life going missing. Or perhaps even a gut feeling, one might say. Mystique.

But however it came about, I knew my sister was in trouble.

“Any word?” I asked over the comm.

Anyone with a good head on their shoulders would be asking about the Chosen knights still lurking around somewhere. Fortunately, I lacked a good head on my shoulders so my question was pretty fucking biased.

“Still a no,” Teed said on the other side. “Just asked them myself, the ATC says the airspeeder crew arrived, saw no signs of the basecamp being used. They camped for a full day with no word. They’ll be going off next week to try again.”

The closest underground entrance to the city was a day off, far beyond clan communications. Ergo, when Kidra's speeder had taken off, the crew had two choices: Camp outside the entrance for possibly a month, doing nothing but tweedling thumbs and hogging an airspeeder, or drive back home and make routine checkups on the entrance to see if she'd come back up. The latter was standard operation, leaving dive teams to bring food and rations to leave behind on the surface so that when they came back up, they could hang tight for a few days until the next scheduled pickup arrived.

“And if they don’t find them waiting? That there’s no sign of Kidra or her knights hanging around for their pickup? What if two weeks passes and she’s still not there? What then, Teed?”

The comms stayed silent for a moment. “Then I’ll ask you to help.” He said, and for once his voice had no warmth to it. More a whisper. “I can drive you over, steal an airspeeder out the hangar. They’ll lock me up for that, but it’ll be worth it. If you bring knights, I can get you there. I can’t go underground, but you can.”

“You need that much time to get to that point? What if in that window of time she dies?!” I snarled back at him before forcing myself to calm down. Me and my godsdamned anger issues. “Sorry, sorry. I shouldn’t be snapping at you. I’m just going through some things. Family drama.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” He said, but I don’t think he had the heart to banter back. Teed wasn’t like me to start cracking jokes to help cope.

A pause settled between us, before he spoke again. “Should we?”

I didn’t need to ask him what he meant by that. “It’s already in our heads now. Going to eat at us from the inside out. And we know that we could pull it off. The sooner we do it, the better chances of helping. If I end up setting off three weeks from now, and find out she’d died a week ago, I… I probably won’t ever recover from that.”

“So. Should we?” Teed asked again.

If I stepped foot outside the clan habitat, it wasn’t just the Chosen knights that’d be hounding after me.

There was a gods damned Feather with an unhealthy obsession with me that I had to deal with.

The knightbreaker did a great job, and now that To’Aacar knew I had that up my sleeve, he was not going to handle me with just one hand. Pun intended, of course. Even as a one-handed cripple, that smug scrap of metal was more than capable of beating both Cathida and I at our best. His spear also invalidated most of the techniques I’d learned recently to fight off other sword or dagger users. To’Aacar could not be taken lightly.

And I’d have to figure out how to navigate underground to even get to the city, all while the Chosen knights and that scraphead chase behind. Could I make it underground, with that much heat chasing behind me?

If I could convince Sagrius to break ranks and follow me on this with his knights, I might just have a chance. They had great loyalty to Kidra, I just didn’t know if it would be enough to overcome their ingrained loyalty to the clan itself.

Logistics was also an issue. Enough rations for the trip there, the decent, the return, and the camping required while we waited for the next pickup assuming it all went well.

All in all, every bit of common sense would be screaming at me to drop the idea. And of course, that goes out the window the moment I glance back at that dark hole in my heart where the only family I had left was missing. “I think… I think we already decided, Teed. All that’s left is post-rationalizing it. So come up with some good reasons to justify us going rogue like this.”

“Come on kid, you’re a Winterscar. That’s reason enough right? Stealing an airspeeder and going rogue isn’t the worst thing your house has pulled off. There’s precedence, so it’s all by the book in a way.”

I laughed, “I do like making them roll over in their graves. This would be a nice return to tradition.

All right, let’s do it.

Let’s steal an airspeeder.”

We got caught immediately.

And no - I didn’t fuck it up. I swear to all the gods above and below, it was already done and over before the game even started.

By immediately caught, I mean the moment I crossed back into my house, Chenobis from the clan lord were already waiting for me, arms crossed against their black dress. Demon masks, straw hats and all, they hadn’t spared any of the look today. Technically, I hadn’t been caught per say - only the clan lord had sent for an immediate summon for me.

Could have been anything. And I would have bet anything it had to do with a certain treasonous chat I just had with a Reacher pilot who shall remain nameless.

Two Winterscar knights accompanied me, mostly because they were already in the courtyard to keep an eye on the Chenobis that had come knocking on the doors. The rest of the knights was with my captain, down deeper into the winterscar sanctum training.

The Chenobis were not pleased that the two Winterscar tag-alongs refused to let me leave without them accompanying me, and they were wearing armor while the Chenobis were not. Supposedly, the clan lord’s secret army was considered elites in every field, but nobody argues with whoever's holding a bigger stick. In this case it was the Winterscars that came out on top.

So I was whisked away to see Lord Drass once again with my two knights in tow.

The door slammed behind me, and left me alone with Drass. Or as alone as one could be with four clan knights hovering protectively by the frail lord hunched over her desk. My own two guards remained silent at my side, just a foot behind.

“Winterscar." She said, not bothering to look up from her scribbling. "I was wondering when the Chenobis would drag you up here. It seems you've exceeded even my expectations, and they were already high to begin with."

"You err, summoned me, clan lord?" I asked.

"For all intents and purposes, no. Your arrival is just as much a surprise to me as it is to you. I instructed the chenobis to have you brought up here the moment you started getting ideas."

"Spying on me, clan lord?"

She scoffed, scribbling on the administration paper her signature before tossing it to the stack next to her. Another paper took her attention. "I have to keep the chenobis busy with something. They get lonely if I don't make use of their skills. Of course I'm keeping myself informed with your actions, most of my headaches have your last name attached to them."

"It is a pretty popular time to be a Winterscar, but I swear on the gods we've been pretty law abiding clanmembers so far."

A tut this time. "He lies as easily as he breathes." She muttered, shaking her head. "You wouldn't happen to be looking for your sister, yes? And, by complete coincidence, planning to steal an airspeeder?"

"I did say we had been behaving so far. And if we have, it's all just a bit of mischievous fun, we're not a threat to anything."

"You do have a small army of knights at your command, who are clearly willing to overstep boundaries to follow you.” She said, giving a pointed look at the two behind me. If they felt ashamed or anything, they didn't show it, remaining perfectly stoic behind me.

Well. I’d already been caught, no point playing coy. “All right. I may have been debating some light petty theft. But other than attempting to steal an airspeeder, the rest I’m perfectly within my rights to do. The clan has always allowed people to come and go.”

“Don’t bother with the semantics Winterscar, we’re both well above that level by now. You own a relic armor. If the clan allowed their relics to simply walk off into the white wastes, we wouldn’t have much of a clan at all. Now, go on, explain yourself.”

All right, showtime. I squared up my courage, stood a bit straighter and went with the honest approach. “My sister hasn’t returned. I need to find her. Haven’t I done enough for the clan for this much goodwill at the very least?”

She paused her scribbling and looked up. “And what makes you think I was planning on barring your exit in the first place?”

“I- uhh,” Oh, that caught me by surprise. “Well, given I was rushed to see you directly right after I got caught talking about stealing an entire airspeeder, I’d bet a heater that I was going to get drawn out and quartered for it.”

Drass chuckled, in that elderly manner. “I don’t believe even Urs himself could find a way to keep you here if you planned to escape. There's no point trying to keep you locked here.” She stood up, and turned to one of her knights, hand outstretched. The knight in turn gave a short bow, and drew out a small black pluck which she neatly grabbed.

“We already know the Chosen knights are after you. And while the Chenobis are excellent at sniffing out internal affairs, they are not equipped to sneak around unheated sections with the same amount of stealth, against opponents with armor.”

She hobbled down the steps and up to me. “The latest report suggests that our most unwelcome guests are indeed hiding deeper into the superstructure, in places we can’t reach without disadvantage. So instead, we’ll use bait to draw them out.” One wrinkly hand extended the black puck to me. “This is a powerful stealth transmitter. Hard to scramble, but low range. I've had it specially requisitioned for this mission and hand crafted by some of the best Reachers the clan has. You will keep this on your person at all times during your little escapade. For operation security, I won’t divulge anything more, though you can likely guess what the plan is, if not the personnel involved.”

“Ah. My favorite tactic.” I said, accepting my lot in all this and putting the puck into my armor’s utility belt. “I’m pretty experienced at this you know. I’ll do the clan proud and be devilishly irresistible.”

She smiled. “I am certain you will do exactly that.”

“That said, the one who’s after me right now is a Feather. I hope whatever team you’re sending to keep an eye on me from the shadows is enough. I think he's mad.”

There was an odd twinkle in her eye at that, as if I’d said something funny. “The Feather will be the clan’s responsibility to handle. You will not be needed in this regard. Rather, you should focus on your main task to reach the Undersider city. Recovering your sister and the other knights she went down with is your sole objective. Leave the other objectives to their specialized teams.”

That got my attention. “Hold up, how exactly are you going to take on a Feather?”

She shook her head at that. “Need to know. Should the worst happen to you before the plan works, the information might be taken from you and hamper the plan’s ability to recover you safely. The element of surprise is something we are banking on. However, I am supremely confident in our abilities. We have not been simply doing nothing with the knowledge you shared, I’ve taken Lord Atius’s previous plans and notes and built upon them. I am certain when he returns, he will be pleased with the progress.”

I gave a shrug, not really knowing how they had the means to deal with a Feather of all opponents, but what the clan lord says, the clan lord means. Besides, if they were offering to take things off my plate, I certainly won’t complain about that. I had a mission in mind. “So you’ll even allow me to seek the city out?”

Drass hobbled back to her chair, waving a hand as she did so. “Someone has to, and soon. I’ve been coordinating with the First Blade on striking the raider encampments, but the loss of your sister has not gone unnoticed." She coughed, and cleared her throat before reaching for a small bottle of water at her side. "As you probably already guessed, I have already been planning stages of this already for some time. Regardless of what team I assemble to recover your sister, it was almost inevitable that you would get wind of it, and as I'd mentioned before, I doubt even the gods would have stopped you from sneaking onto the mission in some convoluted way that messes up carefully prepared plans. Rather than leave that chaotic element, I'd rather simply assume from the start any expedition to the undersider city would involve you."

Pen in hand, she returned to her papers as she spoke. "I am not sure what has transpired underground that would hold your sister from returning. It could very well be something mundane, such as the Undersiders being disagreeable, and requiring more persuasion. That would not be unprecedented for them. Lack of challenge and hardships soften a people." Her scribbling grew a little more heated at that mention. "Your sister could have chosen to remain underground and taken more time to break up the rust there.” One of her knights was already at her side, taking the chair and pulling it out so she could sit.

More scribbling on her papers, as she shuffled another one. She had a look of distaste for this next leaflet, as if she didn't appreciate the content. “Good gods, these Reachers are stretching their welcome. Give an inch and they mistake it for a mile. How do they make anything work when they mistake such basic measurements." There was some very angry scribbling involved for the next few moments, before she looked back up. "Now, where was I? Oh. Yes. The Feather. Given a Feather is involved, and the Chosen as well, I suspect the issue is machine related instead. Regardless, go underground and return Lady Winterscar back to the clan. That is an order. You will do so two days from now during the night, so that the rest of my timeline falls into place with your departure. Your decision to steal an airspeeder came a little earlier than planned for, hence the need to drag you here before you break something important.”

I bowed, hand following the full movements. “I will do as the clan lord commands.”

Drass nodded. “Officially, I have given you no such orders. If the Chosen believe you're out of control, they will be more likely to give chase. You will plan out a suitable plot to steal a specific airspeeder I have picked out. Chenobis will work with you in making sure it goes correctly. Bring your house knights with you, five of them. The others are required here. While the clan is now well prepared to deal with the raider invasion, it still requires knights to do so. I can spare some for your quest, but not all.”

“Leaving me all alone, eh?” I said. "Or do I get to pick a few friends to come down with me?"

"You will have to lead your team yourself to the Undersider city once you’re underground. But, I am not completely heartless. Ironreach will supply you with training and instructions on traversing the underground. Study well in the days you have left. As for rations, I will have a depot of the supplies out within easy reach for you to steal when the time comes.”

“Understood, I’ll figure something out.”

Drass nodded, “I was expecting some more arguments from you, but I am glad to see you understand the clan itself has needs that superseded all of us.”

“How far off are the raiders from attacking us? Maybe I can return in time for the attack.”

Drass organized some more papers, knocking them back into a neat square, before taking out the next requisition paper and glancing over it, somehow having her attention both on the work and the conversation with me. “The first blade has done great work in disrupting the raiders from establishing a bulkhead, but the main army is indeed sizable enough that even with his concentrated efforts, it’s only temporary unless he takes a far too risky gamble. I estimate one more month, at the most, before the raiders are in position to begin a full attack. If you can move fast, do so. But five knights and yourself missing in action when the attack happens is not as much of a deathblow as it used to be prior to the recent windfalls. The clan will survive. Still, ten additional relic knights returning in time would certainly be welcome.”

She waved a hand off, dismissing me and my retinue. “We’re done here if you have no further questions."

I shook my head, already considering what I'd do next now that I had the unofficial permission from the clan lord to go help. Two days was a bit of time, but given she'd tossed me a bone here, I'd play ball.

"Very well. The chenobis will be in contact with you soon on the agenda. Gods watch over you, Winterscar. And do try to live up to your House’s standards of becoming a nuisance. If anything, it would be nostalgic to see a scandal with the Winterscar name in the morning reports again.

Things have gotten dreadfully boring with only a raider invasion on the horizon and a mythological machine demi-god to handle.”

Next chapter - Grand Theft Speeder

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